


Until Earth Is Free

by ObjectPermanence



Series: Fighter AU [1]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bare Knuckle Fights, Fight Club - Freeform, Human Trafficking, Kidnapping, M/M, Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 11:25:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/710269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObjectPermanence/pseuds/ObjectPermanence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enjolras gets jumped one night, and finds himself thrown into the world of underground bare knuckle fights and human trafficking, known as "Paradise" to those on the inside. While trying to stay alive his entire view of humanity is challenged by the dark nature of his new life as a street fighter.</p><p>Enjolras had however, failed to notice that each of the cells in the compound contained a sleeping occupant, and only became aware of this after the sound of him vomiting had woken the man in the cell to the right of his. He was still feeling the after effects of the vomiting when a voice came from the other side of the fence, "Youre new here."</p><p>The unfamiliar voice startled Enjolras, "Um....yea. Where exactly is here?" he wondered aloud, smearing the blood on his hand down the front of his tanktop, not caring about the large red handprint it left.</p><p>The other man laughed with a sick sense of humor, "You're in Paradise." He heard the cracking of knuckles comming from the cell, and Enjolras felt his blood run cold as he heard footsteps comming towards him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until Earth Is Free

**Author's Note:**

> So, this fic is kind of dark, sorry if you're not into that...But basically I worked really hard on this for three days, and I'm quite proud of it, It's my baby c: Any comments are appreciated, and I hope you enjoy! I hope to update this at least once a week, possibly every other week depending on my schedule...:)

Enjolras opened his eyes as to see nothing but gray, cement ceiling above him. Bain ripped through his chest as he inhaled, the room smelled heavily of smoke and sweat. His head ached when he tried to sit up to orient himself, it felt like he'd been hit  by a ton of bricks. Reaching up to rub his forehead Enjolras winced when his fingertips brushed his hairline, and pulled them away quickly only to see that they were covered in blood.  _What the fuck?_ He thought, trying to look around the room without moving his head. Cement ceiling, hanging light, inside, barbedwire fence on his left. There wasn't much else that he could see from his place atop a nearly rock hard surface. Reaching down he felt the side of what he was laying on, a really hard matress he assumed. There was no pillow underneath his head, and no blanket on the sad excuse for a bed.

Enjolras cou'ldn't remember where he was, or why he was there. The last thing he could recall was leaving the university library at around 1am, after having fallen asleep amongst the stacks off books, and hearing a rustling in the bushes outside the door. After that he had no idea what had happened. He tried to sit up again, this time much slower, and succed in placing himself in an upright position. From here he could see that he was in a poorly lit cement hallway that had been sectioned of by barbedwire fences. The hallway was divided in half the long way, and one side served as a smaller pathway, from which you could see all of the cells that had been created by sectioning off the other half of the hallyaw into smaller individual rooms. Each appeared to be identical, all having a single light hanging in the center of the room from the ceiling, the same small pile of straw in the left corner, and the same baren matress pushed up against the right wall. Enjolras rubbed his eyes, he had no idea what time it was, and when he looked down to check hs watch he saw the bruises that covered his arms, and the blood on the matress where his head had been. His gaze sweeped over the rest of his body, seeing all of the bruises and welts along his skin that had not been there when he left the library. He was so preoccupied with cataloging his visible injuries Enjolras had failed to notice that he no longer was wearing his jeans and favorite Occupy shirt, but now wore matching gray tank top and sweatpants. Everything about his situation was beging to send him into a panic attack, and he had to brace his hands on either side of the matress as he threw up on the floor, his body wracked with shivers.

Enjolras had however, failed to notice that each of the cells in the compound contained a sleeping occupant, and only became aware of this after the sound of him vomiting had woken the man in the cell to the right of his. He was still feeling the after effects of the vomiting when a voice came from the other side of the fence, "Youre new here."

The unfamiliar voice startled Enjolras, "Um....yea. Where exactly is here?" he wondered aloud, smearing the blood on his hand down the front of his tanktop, not caring about the large red handprint it left.

The other man laughed with a sick sense of humor, "You're in Paradise." He heard the cracking of knuckles comming from the cell, and Enjolras felt his blood run cold as he heard footsteps comming towards him. The bed was pushed up against the fence of the other man's cell, and his legs weren't working properly just yet, so Enjolras just sat on his bed helplessly as the faceless voice got closer. "At least that what we call it." He could see the speaker better, now that he was about a foot away from the bed, and despite being separated by a barbedwire fence Enjolras was still very scared by this man.

The man who had been talking had a mass of black curls ontop of head, stubble along his jawline, and olive skin. He had a sturdy, muscular frame with broad shoulders and a large bruise slightly below his left eye. His bright blue eyes peeked out from behind stray locks of his hair, and gave him a defiant and intimidating look, despite being about 2 to 3 inches shorter than Enjolras. In one hand he had a half full bottle of beer, and the other was wrapped in some sort of fabric. "So, how'd you end up here?" He asked, looking genuinly interested as he sipped from his bottle.

Enjolras sighed, "I have no idea, I just woke up here." He gestured around at the fences, and padlocks on the doors of each cell. "I don't remember anything."

The other man nodded, "Okay, well that sucks dick." He shrugged his shoulders, "Not much you can do about it though. You're pertty much stuck here."

"Well, what is this place?" Enjolras shifted to face his 'neighbor' who chuckled again before taking another drink. "Seriously, I don't even know what the time is."

The darkhaired man shook his head, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. And the Captain comes in around 11:00 everyday, and he hasn't come yet, so it's earlier probably like 9 or 10." He chuckled, flashing supprisingly white teeth that contrasted with his bruised body and split lip, creating an odd mesh of kindness and intimidation on his face. "Man, you're in for a shock. What are you? 19? 20?"

"I'm 23. My name's Enjolras, by the way." Enjolras shook his head indignantly. "What are you? 21? 22?"

"24. Name's R,"  He shook his head, black curls bouncing wildly as he moved, "not like it matters, here I'm just 2454." Enjolras looked confused as R shook his head, and before he could ask why it didn't matter a loud buzzer blasted through the hallway. He covered his ears, trying to block out the loud noise as it made his teeth clack together.

"Alright!" A man's gruff voice followed the buzzer, "Get your asses up!" The speaker was a tall man with short brown hair who walked down the hallway, banging a nightstick against the chainlink fence of the cells. As he got closer to Enjolras the yells of other men could be heard over the racket of the man's nightstick. He stopped infront of Enjolras's cell, "Fresh meat boys!" He yelled, staring at Enjolras with cold, dead eyes, eliciting calls of approval from the other men. He turned on his heel, and continued his route down the hall with a laugh, but ceased his banging. 

"That's Javert. He's one of the guys incharge around here." R nodded towards the man, walking towards the door of his cell, "It's just another day." He muttered as a smaller boy with dark brown hair and wide eyes opened his cell, and gestured for him to leave his cell and follow the others a they walked down the hall.

The same small boy opened Enjolras's cell,and told him to go with the others. Enjolras followed behind R helplessly, as they all walked towards a large brown door at one end of the hallway. His legs were screaming in pain at every step, and he found himself stumbling along, barley keeping up and occasionally bumping into the man behind him. R glanced behind him and grunted quietly, "Keep up, or you'll be sorry." At this he began to ignore the pain in his legs, and continued walking, instead of collapsing like he wanted to.

Once Enjolras had passed through the brown door he found himself in a larger, slightly better lit, room. It was made entirley out of cement, like the last one, but had a large square marked on the floor in the center. Another man was directing everyone to stand on the lines of the square. Now he had a better look at the other men, and could see that all of them looked like they had been beaten up, like R. Out of all of them, Enjolras had the fewest bruises and cuts, the worst one being the large gash above his right eyebrow that had been bleeding earlier, but had since stopped. Most of the men either had a black eye, a broken nose, or a busted lip, and all of them were covered with bruises. Most of them had a similar build, sturdy and well muscled, some were slightly stockier but still just as muscular.

That's when Enjolras noticed the odd one out, the duck amongst the geese. She was about 4 inches shorter than him, but was still covered with bruises, and had a scar that ran from the end of her left ear, and ran along her jaw to her chin. Dark hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, away from her green eyes that gleamed with determination, and she gave off an aire of confidence.

When everyone was in the room Enjolras could see there were about 25 people around the square, and the man from before was in the center. "Okay, good morning fuckers. Incase you didn't notice, we've got a newbie." He pointed directly at Enjolras, and everyone looked at him immediatley, "You all remember your first day, and how 'scary' it was," he put air quotes around the world scary which made a few men chuckle, "...now who wants to make the new kid feel welcome?"

"I will." The girl spoke up in a defiant tone, tossing her head back and strutting forward. The crowd cheered at her, and the man on Enjolras's left wolfwhistled loudly.

The man in the middle, whom Enjolras had figured was "The Captain" R had mentioned earlier, yelled at Enjolras, who quickly obeyed, "Get your ass up here boy." And then walked into the center of the square.

He rubbed the back of his neck before extending his hand towards the girl, "Hi, I'm-" He was cut off as the girl's fist connected with the side of his head, and he was sent reeling. Blood began to run from the gash on his forehead, and his vision was clouded as chants of "Ep'! Ep'! Ep'! Ep'!" came from the croud.

He shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts as she came in for another punch, this one headed for his groin. Seeing this comming, Enjolras dropped on all fours, ducking below her punch. And then jumped back up, as she turned around to strike again, he ducked behind her, punching her in the side. She wripped around, swinging again at him, this time hitting him in the ribs. A loud crack rang through out the room as at least two of Enjolras's ribs broke under her fist. He grunted in pain, punching her in the stomach this time, and then slipping behind her hit her again in the back. She cried out in pain, and fell forward. Before she hit the ground he reached out and grabbed her ponytail, hoisting her back into a standing position, and she screamed in pain. As a final blow Enjolras punched her in the jaw, and she crumpled to the ground.

The crowd of men was completly silent as Enjolras stood, covered in sweat over the girl. And then a single voice broke the silence, "Well, looks like we've a got a prodigy on our hands boys." The Captain's voice was steady, yet there was obvious shock underneath the calm exterior. He grabbed Enjolras's right arm and threw it into the air, "Winner!" He declaired as the other men erupted into cheers, and the girl pushed herself into a sitting position at his feet. "Welcome to Paradise." He whispered, the words only meant for Enjolras's ears, as the other men crowded around him, and R slapped him on the back.

-ooo-

Enjolras had been sent back to the line, and watched as two more men fought each other, and then another man took on the girl, who he had learned was called Eponine. She had punched him out in less than a minute. This continued on for a while, people fighting each other bare knuckles, until one fell down. Soon Enjolras understood, he was in an underground fight club. How he had ended up there, he had no idea.

He was brought back to reality by a slap on the back, "I'm up." R said before jogging into the square. He was fighting a man who was an inch or two taller then Enjolras, and had very short black hair and a square jaw. They nodded at eachother, and then the larger man swung at R's head, he dodged it with ease and punched him twice in the side, before kicking him in the tailbone. The larger man yelled in pain, and swung at R again, this time hitting him in the stomach. R grunted in pain, before swinging at his head, ducking another punch, and then he thrust his fist into the other man's crotch. He screeched in pain, and then immediatley collapsed on the ground. In his monent of triumph, R placed his foot of the man chest, placed his hands on his hips, and puffed out his chest, with a comical smile spread accross his face.

"Alright, any serious injuries, go see Joly. Don't be a bitch about bruises or cuts newbie. Only serious shit, like broken bones." The Captain dismissed everyone back to their cells, "Hey, newbie. Get your ass over here." The Captain summoned him over, "Listen, we want you in the line up in 3 days."

 Enjolras stared at him, "I honestly have no idea what's going on here, or what you mean." He explained, rubbing his wrists uncomfortably.

The Captain just pinched the bridge of his nose, "You belong to us now. You fight for us. People come to the fights, you beat each other up. We get paid. It's pretty simple."

Enjolras nodded, half understanding, "But how did I get here? I don't remember sigining up for this."

Javert just laughed, "You **didn't** sign up. We **picked** you. We'd been watching you for a while, and once we had an opening, we collected you. Simple as that." Javert paused, "And you're a natural born fighter. No one has beaten Eponine in their first fight, she's one of our best, even though she's a girl. That was until you showed up." He poked Enjolras in the chest with his finger, "So you fight in 3 days, or you end up like the last guy." He nodded his head towards the door, signaling that Enjolras should leave.

 

-ooo-

Enjolras had been laying in his bed for what seemed like hours when R had walked up to the fence. "Not bad for a newbie." He had been sure everyone was asleep.

"Not bad yourself, you kicked ass." Enjolras whispered back, trying to sound happy, but there was no enthusiasm behind his words. He sat up on his matress, and held his head in his hands sighing.

R sat on the ground next to him, "Who pissed in your lemonade?" Enjolras looked up at R who was playing idily with the edge of his shirt, staring at the blood on it.

"How did you end up here R? Clearly you haven't been here all of your life?" Enjolras turned to face him through the fence.

R looked up slowly, making eye contact, "I was a street artist, and one night I got jumped on my way home. Then the next thing I knew I was here." he gestured to the cell, "What about you?"

Enjolras swallowed, trying not to put too much meaning into the fact that R had said, 'was a street artist' instead of 'am a street artist', "I'm a college student, studying Justice and Politics. I was leaving the library, and got jumped too."

R nodded, "You know, you'll never get out. You can't leave. The last guy in your cell tried to escape a few weeks ago. He's dead now." He whispered solemly, twisting his fingers around in a hole that had formed on the edge of his shirt. "There's nothing you can do but accept that you're here for good."

Enjolras shook his head, "I'm going to get out, one day. You won't live very long in conditions like this." He gnawed on the last bits of bread left over fro his dinner of bread and water.

"I've been here for 4 years...I'm doing okay." R whispered barley audible.

Enjolras's eyes widened in the dark, "4 years? Oh my god R." He breathed, careful not to wake anyone else. "You were 20?"

He nodded, running his fingers through his hair, "You get used to it really quickly, I did. The worst part is the isolation, you only get let out to fight, and once on the last day of the month." He sighed, "You won't last long if you're weak, you have to detach yourself...espically if you're popular with the fans."

As R was running his fingers through his hair his shirt lifted up a bit, revealing his chest which was covered with bruises. Enjolras noticed a mark on his ribs that was not a bruise, "R, what's that?" He pointed at the mark on the other man's ribs.

R looked down, "Oh, my ID?" He ran his fingers over it, "You get it after your first fight. Hurts like a bitch. It's a way to identify you if you get away, that's how they got the last guy.

Enjolras could now see that is was a series of numbers that had been tattooed onto R, "2454." He read them aloud quietly, wetting his slpit lip with his tongue.

"I'm just a number to them." R mutered angrily, "But out in the world, are you really any more important? If anything, I matter more here." He was making the hole  in his shirt noticeably larger as he played with it absent mindedly. "People depend on me here."

Enjolras was forming a response when the soft sound of foot steps came from the other end of the hall, and before he could speak R had disappeared to his own matress. Leaving him alone in the darkness again.

They were complete opposites, R had given up hope of escaping, and Enjolras still thought he could get away. R felt like he was mportant here, and Enjolras felt like a faceless cog in the machine. R was a cynic, Enjolras was an optimist.

 

-ooo-

The next two days were nearly identical to the first; they woke up, had one on one fights, had the doctor Joly examine them for any serious injuries, had a meal of bread and water, and went to bed. Each night R would come over once everyone else was asleep, and they would talk. They talked about social norms, their dreams, and anything else. And then the Captain announced the matches for the fights.

R was up against someone named Courfeyrac, Eponine was against Feuily, and Enjolras was against Combeferre. R seemed enthusiastic about the matches, and told Enjolras that Combeferre was on the lighter side, and could easily be picked up and thrown to the ground. Never the less, he was still nervous.

Javert came in a few hours later as everyone was having their meal, tonight it consisted of chicken, a potatoe and water. It was a welcomed change from the bread and water he'd had for the last three days. "Alright, showers are down the hall if you want one." Enjolras had been hoping they would get to bathe soon, he had three days of blood from the fights stuck to his body.

"You in?" He turned to R who has scarfed his food, and was sitting against their shared wall nursing his bottle. Enjolras had learned that occasionally they got paid, and Joly would sneak out and buy the guys stuff sometimes. Each had their own way with coping with their existence, some smoked, some gambled, R drank.

"Sure." R shrugged, set down the bottle, and walked to his door, "Hey Joly! Can I get a shower?" The small boy that had opened the door on Enjolras's first day, who was also the resident doctor, opened both of their doors, and directed them to the other end of the hall.

When they entered the room there was a bin for shirts and sweatpants, "We get new ones after every fight." R explained as he dropped his clothes into the bin, Enjolras did the same, leaving them both in their gray boxers. R looked around the room for a moment, befroe walking over to the showers. As Enjolras followed him he realised that there were not actually separate showers, but just a single large shower. He swallowed as he realised what he had gotten himself into.

He stepped into the shower, looked over, and happend to see R as he stripped off his boxers, throwing them into the bin on the other end of the room. He seemed to be completly unaware of how awkwardly Enjolras was standing nex to him, but that would be expected, he had spent the last 4 years like this, so male nudity didn't really bother him. R looked way more comfortable naked than anyone had the right to, he just stood under the stream of warm water, head tilted back at he rinsed the blood and sweat from his body.

Not wanting have R realise he was staring Enjolras quickly removed his boxers, and joined R in the shower. As he began to wash the blood from his face he caught R looking at him with a sort of appreciative look. He quickly looked back at the shower, focusing in cleaning his battered and bruised body. A few moments later he felt R tap him on the shoulder, he turned his head to see the other boy holding some sort of white liquid in his hand out towards him. Enjolras quickly assumed that it was cum, and jumped back a foot or too.

R smirked at him, clearly understanding his reaction, "It's shampoo you pervert." He said reaching his hands towards Enjolras's hair, "I was just trying to help." R chuckled as Enjolras hung his head in embarrassment as the other boy massaged the shampoo into his golden locks. 

"Sorry, I've just never been in a communal shower before. And I just assumed..." Enjolras trailed off as R ran his finger along the scar that was begining to form on Enjolras's forehead.

R was silent for a moment, staring at Enjolras while the water washed the shampoo from his hair, "It's okay. Kinda' funny actually." He whispered back, blushing a but when he became aware of what he had been doing. "Sorry, I just-" He stopped midsentence as Enjolras took this opportinuty to trace the four numberd of R right ribcage. "Oh." He breathed, placing his hands on Enjolras's shoulders. "No, sorry I'm realy drunk." R backed away, out of the water. Shaking his head he grabbed a gray towel off the pile, and wrapped it around his waist, "I'm sorry." He repeated before dashing out of the showers, back into the hallway.

Enjolras rinsed the rest of the shampoo from his hair, feeling where R's nails had run accross his scalp. He wrapped a towel around his waist and returned to his cell to find a sollid white v neck T-shirt that allowed some of his chest hair to peek out of the top and black jeans, accompanied by the usual cloth hand wraps they were provided. Dressing quickly, he saw that everyone was wearing different street clothes. Eponine had on a dark red sports bra with a black bra underneath, and some of the shortest and tighest black shorts he'd ever seen. Looking around he saw that both Joly and Javert were dressed in formal black suits, but couldn't find R anywhere. "Okay, fuckers. It starts in 45 minutes, go mingle. Make some friedns." Javet chuckled darkly as everyone filed out into the training room, and then into the main ring.

Enjolras had been in there once before, it was two times larger than the training room, and was much nicer. It had much better lighting that could be dimmed if nessicary, a full bar in one corner, and a betting corner in the other. The ring was marked out in the center of the room, adn people milled around in it freely. The entier room was packed with rich looking men and women, but it was mostly women who seemed to travel in packs around the room.  

Despite the fact that the entire operation looked unorganized it had actually been beought down to a sience by Javert and the family that actually ran the entire operation. Each fighter had a place where they were assigned to be. Enjolras swallowed, trying to calm his nerves as they began to fan out, Enjolras had been assigned to be near the bar. As he got closer he saw that R was near the betting window, talking to some women in cocktail dresses, he was wearing a red beanie with a light blue T-shirt underneath a leather jacket. Enjolras turned his attention back to the bar, where a group of women were sitting and staring at him. He halked over to them and sat down. "We haven't seen you here before." One with long black haire purred into his ear seductivly, "You must be new." Another with short blonde hair placed her manicured fingers on his shoulder.

He tensed at her touch, "Yes, I'm new." He nodded as a third ran her fingers through his hair, reminding him of R in the shower. She stroked his cheek, and he became aware of the fact that he hadn't shaved since h'd gotten there, and was quite scruffy. 

The girl with black hair had sat down on his lap, and was stroking the side of his leg, "So, do you think we could talk? After this is all over?" She whispered loud enough for everyone at the bar to hear her. 

Enjolras swallowed nervously, "Um...well-" He was cut off by Javert announcing that the fights would be begingin in 10 minutes, and that all fighters needed to be back in the training room. Enjolras lifted the girl off of his lap, "That's me, sorry." He jogged off towards the door, but not before one of them slapped his butt infront of Eponine, who snickered under her breath.

 

-ooo- 

"Alright so basically, just go out there and fught your asses of. Lots of blood, don't make the fights too quick. And if anything goes down and the cops show up you all hide in the bunker down stairs, we don't need this getting found." Javert spoke calmly to everyone as they prepared, "And side bets are okay, nut don't bet on yourslef, if you get caught you'll be sorry." He dismissed everyone to go back out and wait to be called up when they needed to fight.

R grapped Enjolras's arm before he could slip away again, "Listen Enjolras, about earlier. I'm just really dru-"

Enjolras cut him off, "I'm okay. I just wanted to make sure you were alright, you looked kind of flustered." R nodded his head, black curls hanging in his eyes. "I just wanted to make sure."

R released his arm, "Hey, you'll do great. Don't worry about it. Have a drink, loosen up before hand. It helps sometimes." Enjolras patted him on the shoulder before reentering the main room, leaving R walking a few steps behind him.

 

-ooo-

"Montparnasse is the guy in the ring announcing the fighters." R told Enjolras as Eponine's fight started with her punching Feuily, who was wearing a simple brown shirt and jeans, in the stomach. He responded by ducking her next punch and delivering a blow to her hip. She stumbled a bit, and then caught one of his punches in her own hand, twisting his arm backwards, eliciting a shriek from him. To get her to stop he kicked up with one leg, hitting her squarley in her stomach. Eponine coughed up some blood and released his arm while crown cheered as she wiped the red liquid from her lips. Feuily came back at her with his left fist , and landed it squarley on her belly button.

R tensed next to Enjolras, one of his only friends was bleeding heavily and loosing the fight. But just as it looked like Eponine was going down she slugged Feuily in the face. He screamed, cupping his now broken nose in his hands, as blood streamed down his face, stumbling backwards Eponine placed her foot squarley on his chest and kicked him to the ground. The crown erupted in thunderous applause and Eponine fist pumped the air, "Our winner is Eponine!" Montparnasse announced, raising her arm into the air.

Joly quickly appeared next to Feuily, who was bleeding uncontrollably now, and began to treat his broken nose, and stop the bleeding.Everytime he removed his hands the blood gushed out even more, and Joly asked R and Courfeyrac to help take Feuily back to his room. They carried Feuily out of the room just as Montparnasse called out "Next we will have Combeferre go against the newbie Enjolras!"

Enjolras setpped into the ring and saw Combeferre for the first time, he had medium length light brown hair, and a serious face that reminded Enjolras of one of his professors.  Montparnasse had just started the fight when Combeferre threw a punch at Enjolras's face which he dodged and then punched him in the ribs. Combeferre looked as if he hadn't felt it, and punched at him again, hitting him in the stomach and the chest.

Enjolras felt sick, and barley supressed vomiting while ducking the inslaught of punches from Combeferre. He delivered a few punches to the other man's upper body, and then snuck in, and socked Combeferre in the left side of his head. He grunted and blood dripped from his ear as he kicked at Enjolras. The kick hit Enjolras squarley in the chest, knocking all of the our out of his lungs. He stumbled backwards into the crowd, only to be pushed back into the ring by a sea of hands. As Enjolras was thrown back in Combeferre delivered another blow to his chin, snapping his head back. Enjolras ducked down, and hit Combeferre in the head with his elbow, and kicked him in the knee with his left foot.

Comberferre stumbled back before kneeing Enjolras in the stomach. His vision was begining to blur, and he could barley stay standing. Thinking fast he grabbed Combeferre's leg, and lifted it higher and higher into the air, leaving the other man to hop around trying to regain his balance on one foot. Enjolras jammed his elbow down on the other man's leg, and threw Combeferre to the ground, punching him a few times until his nose bled and he stopped struggling. He stood up, standing over the defeated man, and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. 

"The winner is Enjolras!" Montparnasse announced to the crowd who cheered and clapped loudly as Enjolras looked around. Montparnasse hand thrust his hand into the air and Enjolras felt alive as adrenilan pumped through his veins. 

R was standing by the bar when Enjolras walked out of the ring, leaving an unconsience Joly to deal with the now unconsience Combeferre. "Not bad." He took the bottle of beer the darkhaired man held out ot him.

"Yea, not bad." He agreed, chugging the entire thing in one go, savoning the bruning sensation it created in his throat. "You're up soon right?" R nodded, ordering two more beers. Dropping a few dollars into the hand of the girl behind the counter, R offered one to him. Enjolras accepted, took a long swig, and set the bottle down on the bar. He noticed the lip of the bottle was stained with blood, a bit floated ontop of the beer, and there was a bloody handprint on the label.

"God it's every where." R licked his thumb and wiped some blood off of Enjolras's chin, "You look like shit."

He nooded, "I don't feel much better either. Thanks for the beer though." R continued his single handed mission to rid his face of blood, only nodding slightly to aknowledge his words. They were silent for a while before Enjolras spoke, "Where did you get the money for the beers?"

R stopped abruptly, his thumb still on Enjolras's eyebrow, where he had been wiping away a particurly dark streak of blood. "Oh, I thought you knew." He sighed deeply, removing his hand from the other man's face, "Javert doesn't mind, he says it developes customer loyalty."

Enjolras took R hand in his, and gave it a worried squeeze, "What developes coustomer loyalty?"

"Whoring around." R whispered, his voice barley audible over the yelling of the crowds. "Detaching yourself helps, not thinking about what you're doing, or who's touching you. We all have our own way of coping with the fights. Ep' smokes, Feuily gambles, Jehan wrote, I drink." R picked at the label on his bottle, not looking at Enjolras, "It pays well at least, and it's of the few things I'm good at." Enjolras gave R a woried look as he continued, "It's just something you do here. A requirement for the job." He paused, finsihing his beer, "I'm running low on booze funds...guess I'm working tonight." Runnning his fingers through his hair sighing thoughtfully he finshed, "But it's not really worth it in the end. You die no matter what, and what you did won't matter in the long run."

 

-ooo-

That night Enjolras lay awake in his bed, the sound of Feuily's steady breathing comming from the cell to the left of his. Courfeyrac, Eponine and R hadn't returned, but he already knew what they were doing. Sometimes his overactive imagination was his worst enemy, and now was definetly one of those times. All he could think about was someone else running their fingers over R's tattoo, reminding his of how he was just a number, and R naked in the embrace of a stranger who would cast him aside in a few hours.

Every now and then Enjolras would catch a glimpse of the old R, the person he was before Paradise, a free spirited young boy with a dream and hope. Now, that boy was all but gone, and only appeared in the occasional cocky smile, wity remark, or drunken comment. Paradise had turned R into a cynical drunk, and the idea of that happening in only four years made Enjolras shudder.

He was the only one that was awake when he heard Joly open the cell next to his. He was the only one to see a shadow enter the cell to the right of his. And he was the only one who heard R's muffled sobs as he cried into his pillow as he fell asleep.      

 


End file.
